(I wrote this post in response to the current discussion at
This Thread. But I think this is a better place to post my suggestions.)
Yes I think Placate is underperforming. For 1 is it bugged or not working as it should, 2 it is interruptible, 3 it has a long recharge time, and 4 Placate no longer puts you in real Hidden status.
1) Placate is bugged:
Normally if you Placate an enemy, he cant select you. But if you attack an enemy first and leave any status effect such as Stun, -fly, -def, etc then the enemy can still select you and attack, therefore Placate is useless for what its intended to do.
Almost every AT has some form of status effect or extra effect with their normal attack powers. Since all Ats share this commonality, the Stalker AT should not be discriminated against and singled as being penalized for using their attacks which have a status effect and then being denied Placate from working.
If this penalty remains on Stalkers, that forces most of them to Stop using most of their attacks ahead of time otherwise Placate will not work.
Some examples:
It forces Energy Melee to stop using all but 1 of its attacks since all those attacks have a chance to inflict a status effect (thats 85.7% of attacks that cannot be used).
It forces Spines to stop using at least 6 of its 7 attacks (thats 85.7% of attacks that cannot be used).
It forces Dark Melee to stop using at least 6 of its 7 attacks (thats 85.7% of attacks that cannot be used).
It forces Ninja Sword to stop using at least 5 of its 7 attacks (thats 71.4% of attacks that cannot be used).
It forces Martial Arts to stop using at least 4 of its 7 attacks (thats 57.1% of attacks that cannot be used).
No Melee AT should be forced to stop using higher than 57% of its attacks to be able to use a power (Placate) which the AT is heavily based upon, and essential to use its Inherent Power, and which is needed to deliver the damage it is supposed to.
Placate should be fixed so that when you have inflicted status effects on an enemy, the enemy still cannot target you.
2) Placate is interruptible which means the enemy can still attack while you are Placating and his damage will interrupt your ability to land a Critical.
If you click Placate (which has a cast time of 1.5 seconds) slightly before or at the same time the enemy clicks a power (which has a cast time of 3.5 seconds), the enemy power will still damage you.
The 2 purposes of Placate is to prevent an enemy from attacking you (also known as getting agro off you) and to be able to land a critical on your next attack. That means since Placate is interruptible, that it also isnt very effective at preventing attacks and fails to do one of its jobs which is give a Stalker a Critical.
Since the Stalker AT is forced to be in melee combat to use its skills, but with less melee HP compared to other melee Ats, that means even 1 attack that gets past Placate can be deadly to the Stalker. Many Avs can 1-2 shot a Stalker at full health. Many Hero Ats can 2 shot a Stalker and some Scrappers can kill a stalker with just 1 attack if the stalker is at 99% health (which is common due to fall damage taken by the Stalker while navigating).
With the existing penalty to stalkers of lower HP but still having the expectation to be in melee range to perform,
Placate should not be able to have its Critical bypassed, and Placate should make any damage or effect of the enemy ineffective IF the Stalker activates Placate Before or at the same time the enemy activates his attack.
To be fair, I think
the only power exception to the rule of enemy attacks being ineffective should be Assassins Strike and the Sniper powers of other Ats since these powers have long cast times, have LOS checks, and are interruptible. So if a player has the skill to be in the LOS and position of the enemy to use the power, and is able to click it at the same time as Placate is clicked, then the player using AS or a Sniper power is rewarded.
Placate should also uncue the enemys attack to help achieve its goal of preventing enemy attacks.
The reason for this is, like AS, the timing of Placate is important and susceptible to lag. Even if a player has a perfect connection, he can still experience Power lag from the server due to high levels of players in a zone. If a Player clicks a long range attack, that attack will activate eventually and be effective at dealing damage even during lag. If a Stalker clicks Placate during lag, theres a chance the timing will be wrong and allow the enemy to attack, thus Placate would be ineffective. This gives Placate an additional hindrance.
3) Placate has a long recharge time of 60 seconds. As stated above, Placate is needed to prevent enemy attacks and give the stalker a chance to make a Critical attack. Yet since we must be in melee range to perform, we are attacked many times during the 60 second wait time and are at greater risk then other Melee Ats.
Tanks and Brutes have the advantage of higher HP, Defense, and Resist Values. Scrappers have the advantage of higher HP and Damage so they are able to kill the enemy before being killing themselves.
Stalkers only advantage is a power which takes too long to recharge and isnt reliable at doing its job correctly. We have lower HP and damage modifiers than Scrappers, which is the AT we are derived from.
AS has a recharge time of 15 seconds but since Placate is usually needed to use AS again during a battle, we must still wait 60 seconds. Or we must wait 10 seconds and not attack or take any damage so that we are re-Hidden. So that is 15 +10 = 25 seconds we must wait to use AS to perform a critical. Stalkers already do less DPS than Scrappers, so Stalkers must make use of all opportunities to use AS and critical attacks just to ATTEMPT to perform as well as Scrappers do at dealing damage.
Heres a comparison of default recharge times of AS powers to high damage or high tier Melee powers:
Scrapper Melee:
Head Splitter: 14 seconds
Eviscerate: 8.38 seconds
Midnight Grasp 15 seconds
Golden Dragonfly 12 seconds
Eagles Claw 12 seconds
Ripper: 11 seconds
Stalker Melee:
Assassins Strike: 15 seconds
Shown above, most Scrappers must wait less than 14 seconds to perform their highest damage attacks, some of which are capable at 1 shoting (when used with BU and enhanced for damage) a Stalker with 99% health, just like AS can.
But Stalkers must wait either 15 (AS recharge) +10 (regain Hide) = 25 seconds or wait 60 seconds (Placate recharge) to use their highest damage attacks again. When not Hidden Assassins Strike only does Moderate damage which is pathetic for a power which has very high End cost, is interruptible, has 2 LOS checks, and has a 4 second activation time.
Also look at the recharge times for Scrapper Confront: 3 seconds and Tanker Taunt: 10 seconds. Those Ats are known for those powers and reliant on them to perform all that is expected of them. Yet Stalkers Placate time is 60 seconds and needed to deliver high damage and prevent enemy damage to survive, and these 2 things are expected of Stalkers.
Since Placate has a long recharge time and is needed by AS to make a critical, and AS criticals are needed by Stalkers to try to make up for the low DPS they have,
I think the recharge time should be reduced for Placate. I do not 100% support this change yet it would improve Stalker performance; Perhaps Stalkers should be improved in other ways. But definitely the suggestions from parts 1), 2) and 4) should be made to Placate.
4) Placate puts you in pseudo Hide but no longer puts you in real Hidden status as it used to do. Placate only gives 380 stealth where true Hide gives 500 stealth. This change was made long ago during a time when many players were still learning how to deal with enemy stalkers or did not care to invest in +perception powers.
But a lot has changed since then. Most educated players know now that a Stalker running just Hide is almost certain to be seen by regular hero PVPers these days. They have the advantage to buy IR Goggles in Sirens, get stacked CM buffs, and the new perception IO will be added in issue 11. So if most enemies can see past Hide, they can surely see past 380 stealth which makes the change to Placate an unnecessary penalty. And even at the stealth cap (maximum) a Stalker can still be seen and have his Stealth bypassed using the Stealth Bug.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....e=0&fpart=1
Stalker Placate should be restored to give the Hide level of stealth with the Defense bonus of Hide when used (3.75% Defense (ALL except AOE) and 37.5% Defense (AOE). By having Placate put us in real Hide with the same defense as Hide, this will help prevent AOES and random damage from ruining our Critical attacks and this change will make Placate useful again to an AT which already has so many restrictions, penalties, hate, and neglect.
To reiterate:
Placate is underperforming for 1) is it bugged or not working as it should, 2) it is interruptible, 3) it has a long recharge time, and 4) Placate no longer puts you in real Hidden status.
Since it is underperforming for the reasons explained above:
<ul type="square">[*]Placate should be fixed so that when you have inflicted status effects on an enemy, the enemy still cannot target you.[*]Placate should not be able to have its Critical bypassed, and Placate should make any damage or effect of the enemy ineffective IF the Stalker activates Placate Before or at the same time the enemy activates his attack.
(the only power exception to this rule should be Assassins Strike and the Sniper powers)[*]Placate should uncue the enemys attack to help achieve its goal of preventing enemy attacks. [*]Placate should have its recharge time reduced. [*]Placate should be restored to give the Hide level of stealth (500) with the Defense bonus of Hide when used (3.75% Defense (ALL except AOE) and 37.5% Defense (AOE) . [/list]
